1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer processors and software. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for processor performance monitoring.
2. Description of the Related Art
Performance analysis is the foundation for characterizing, debugging, and tuning a micro-architectural processor design, finding and fixing performance bottlenecks in hardware and software, as well as locating avoidable performance issues. As the computer industry progresses, the ability to analyze the performance of a microarchitecture and make changes to the microarchitecture based on that analysis becomes more complex and important.